Wall Of Bikers Protect Mourners At funeral of Newtown, Conn.

Bikers Shield The Family

If you have ever seen people come together at a time like this and do what is right without being asked or rewarded, then you just did. These fellow brothers and sisters followed their conscience and came together to stop what they saw as a wrongful display at the funerals of the fallen at Newtown, Conn. If you look at the photos you will see a solidarity to stop the Westboro Baptist church followers from protesting and supposedly exercising their 1st amendment rights of free speech. Some would say that this type of speech should not be protected, but that is not how the law reads. There is a lot of controversy in this church’s action, and it is the right of these bikers to stand and allow the families to mourn without disruption.

Picket Sandy Hook Funerals

I do not know how these people have it in their minds to protest or picket funerals of small children and teachers, I think there is a special place for these folks. I will leave it up to you to draw your own conclusion. The funeral was for shooting victim Principal Dawn Hochsprung. She will be remembered as a hero like so many other teachers that day.

Westboro Baptist Church-Are They Allowed To Do This?

Our constitution protects this type of speech as repugnant as it is to many. Right or wrong, agree or disagree, we also see another right of free assembly being used to discourage the desecration of a funeral by the Westboro people. I would add, “Bikers for decades have stood up to stop injustice on many fronts”, I remember standing on the capitol steps trying to stop some legislation 35 years ago. This same recognition of something that is larger than themselves or directly impacts the community and needs to be addressed.

There is no doubt in my mind that a wall of biker brothers and sisters will get the positive attention it deserves and protects the innocent families in this terrible time in their lives. Standing up and taking action in a peaceful way sends a message, a very strong one. A lot of us do not condone the Westboro Baptist church and their style of speech, they have the right to not show up at all. There was applause in the crowd when it was announced that the protesting church members had not even showed up.

I think that was the best thing they have done in a long time. Leave these poor people alone, or see if you can get past a wall of bikers, fat chance.

Once A Biker, Always A Biker

There is a lot to be said about the biker community as a whole. Some press gives clubs a bad name, but in times of injustice like we have witnessed at funerals of fallen soldiers and others, bikers have stood up, said and called bullshit. Not all of those standing may have been clubbers or patch holders, it matters not. They came together and that is what mattered.

About Me:

I have been riding a Harley since I was 16, I am over 50 now. Here is my old shovelhead before and after it was rebuilt…

This was taken in the late 80’s…the photo below shows how it is now..

My good friend and ace mechanic Don does the dirty deed rebuilding an old shovel. This bike was cobbled together and I had not had to do much to it over the years. It just got old and needed some TLC. Don did a great job and it took all Winter. I pitched in and relieved him of some of the dirty chores, scraping old gaskets and cleaning parts. He has a lifetime of experience with pre-evo motors. It runs great.